Last week I wrote a review of Resident Evil Revelations, and in short, I was disappointed. This week I'm returning with a review of Resident Evil Revelations 2. This being a rather old game by now, I'll keep my analysis short, and focus mostly on why it is so superior to the original.

RER2 shines in so many places the original failed to. Compared to the original, RER2 has:

More of a sense of exploration

Some scary moments (more is better than none, right?)

Better music

Characters are much more specialized

Richer, deeper gameplay

Diversity of environments

​There's no swimming mechanic anymore (thank the gods)

Overall it feels like a very different game. The biggest similarities are that you are always operating as a pair, although in the original the notion of having a teammate was a total farce. In RER2 your teammate is highly valuable, and extremely specialized. I found myself rhythmically toggling between partners in order to search, fight, and solve puzzles. There’s still a bit of the tedious nature in this dynamic, such as relying on one particular half of the pair to properly search.

There are some areas where, despite being a great game, RER2 falls a little flat:

Inventory management is a constant chore. I found myself often going through a routine of passing ammo to the character that can use it, and freeing up space.

While this sequel doesn’t hit you over the head with instructions as much as the original, it still does more so than it needs to. For example, I came across a brick wall with a giant X on it. When I explored it I was informed I needed a drill. And when I say explore, I mean in the non-diegetic sense whereas text appeared on screen to slap me in the face. This type of spoiler ruins that aw-ha moment you would have had when you found the drill. Allowing players to make connections is paramount to good design.

Scanning for items with your counterparts ability, while still tedious like the scanning mechanic of this games predecessor, at least fits better into the game world. For example, using a flashlight to seek out items is a nice touch. However, constantly toggling to the flashlight character hurts the cadence of the gameplay.

Grading, like the original, remains pointless. Unlike the original, RER2 adds a “next time” spoiler that you need to quickly skip. This isn’t a TV show and I don’t see the benefit in pretending it is.​​

RER2 seems to have been heavily influenced by games like The Last of Us, and mostly for the better. There’s the middle aged man and mysteriously important little girl dynamic. There’s the character that can essential wall hack. There’s stealth zombie kills. And you can sprint. Obviously TLOU didn’t invent any of these themes or mechanics, but the connection is clear.

Overall, RER2 was great fun. I was constantly engaged with the level design, characters, and themes. It still holds up fairly well today. If you are thinking of checking it out, feel free to skip Revelations 1 (just read a quick synopsis).

My first exposure to Resident Evil was watching a neighbor play the original on PlayStation. At the time, even as a fan of the zombie genre, I wasn’t that intrigued. It wasn’t until the rerelease, Resident Evil: Rebirth for GameCube, found its way into my home that I finally dove into a Resident Evil game. I was hooked, and played it through a few times. I was ready to consume all things RE.

Fast forward and, after wrapping up RE4, I was caught up on all the series had to offer at the time. By the time I had the opportunity to play RE5 I had heard enough about the frustrations of the AI partner and the mixed reviews, and I decided to skip it. Then RE6 came along and snippets of info was enough to scare me away from that one. It just felt like a strange deviation from what attracted me to the series.

Once RE7 was announced I had grown eager to return. This is a game that reminded me why Resident Evil is one of my favorite series. It looked and felt amazing. The environments were truly terrifying, and I actually jumped a few times. It defined what survival horror should always be.

Which brings me to Resident Evil Revelations. Purchased for PlayStation 4, I figured I would give it a shot. Knowing nothing about it, I placed my order.

Here’s where it fell flat:

It’s far too linear, with extremely straight forward puzzles (if you can even call them that).

The episodic format is just plain annoying. Why does Capcom feel the need to interrupt action with an archaic grading system? Do we really need a “previously on...” after every short level? This isn't an arcade game.

The story frequently jumps around between characters, locations, and times haphazardly. Consequently, the story is slow and dry, and you never get to identity with any of the characters.

For survival horror, it’s missing the “horror”. Everyone is such a silly Hollywood action caricature and the monsters are so casually tossed in from the start that there is zero suspense, zero fear, and zero sense of danger.

The dialogue is cringe worthy and speckled with blatant sexism. And the women are highly sexualized in a way that is absurd.

You are hit over the head with guidance, even in the most obvious of situations, in the form of map markers and NPC chatter. This kills the sense of discovery.

Having an NPC partner adds little to the game. Enemies mostly ignore them as they fire shots that seem to do little to no damage. There is a formula that is reused throughout the game where the NPCs point you in the right direction, follow you, wait at a place you need an item to engage with, and repeat.

Ammo reappears in locations you have already been. It's an immersion killer.

The scanning mechanic is tedious. You kill an enemy and scan it, and then scan the entire room, over and over again.

This wouldn't be the first time that a Resident Evil title let me down. Zero and Outbreak were also let downs, just for different reasons.

There is a bright side to Revelations, however. At least, I think so. I just played the first hour of Revelations 2, and I'm amazed at how much of an improvement it is in so many ways. I was gripped from the start, and felt the horror that was missing in its predecessor. The team mechanics are sensible, the monsters more terrifying, and the environments are engrossing. While it still is more linear than I prefer my RE games, it gives a better sense of being free roaming. My only beef with the sequel, thus far, is that it clearly was influenced with many of the mechanics and feel of games like The Last of Us. To be fair, those mechanics weren't all original on their own, and have become commonplace. All in all, I have high hopes for this sequel.

For me, like most that had the opportunity, my first experience with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was at a young, impressionable age. Sure, we had an Atari before that, and a couple of games. But it was the NES that by far in away had the largest and most lasting gaming impact on me. I was probably about 5 years old when my neighbor, Miles, beckoned me into his home, touting that he had a new game system, with promises of a dragon. Inside I was introduced to Super Marios Bros, and I imagine my jaw remained unhinged for the length of my visit. It wouldn’t be long before an NES reached my home, and many years followed where I would journey, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, through a rich expanse of worlds.

Fast-forward to around 2002 or 2003, during my college years, where I decided to unpack (and dust off) my old NES. It felt like it had just been long enough whereas coming back to it felt meaningful. By this time, multiple systems had already come and gone, and the NES, for most, had been forgotten, often only surfacing in a garage sale put up by a parent cleaning an attic.

This is also when I learned about the unreliable and degradation of the 72 pin connector. A few dollars and a few weeks later, a replacement arrived from a vendor on eBay. I recall opening up the system with a feeling that was akin to an archaeologist unearthing a sacred grave. In some ways, it felt like an invasion, and in another, it felt like exploring a newly discovered planet.

After getting the NES operational again, I casually played a few games. It wasn’t long before I was back at it with games like Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City and Counter-Strike. My NES was quickly forgotten, re-boxed and packed away. Perhaps it was simply too soon.

It’s now 2018, thirty-three years after the North American release of the NES. At work, we have a #retrogames channel in Slack, where we discuss all things related to retro gaming (including the definition of what retro gaming is). It was in this community that the emotions I have deeply ingrained with the NES resurfaced. Quickly I plunged into all things retro gaming. I binged listened to countless episodes of the Retronauts podcast. I grinded through books likeI Am Error, Legends of Localization Book 1: The Legend of Zelda, The Anatomy of Castlevania: The NES Trilogy, and NES Works Volume I and II. I played modern takes on 8 and 16 bit style games, such as Axiom Verge and Owlboy. I also found myself back in a place I hadn’t been since the early 2000s: eBay. My collection of original NES carts quickly doubled.

In the last 6 months I learned more about classic gaming than I had ever known. I gained layers of appreciation and understanding that simply didn’t exist prior. While in doing so, some of the charm of my memories may have been tainted, yet overall, my lasting impressions of what retro gaming means to me has been greatly enhanced. It reminded me a bit like my experience in studying film in college, as once I understood what the man behind the curtain was doing I could now love these things deeper, but the man could never be unseen, and thus some of the illusions were forever lost.

As I prepared my original NES for its return performance I came prepared with the knowledge that hooking an NES up to a 4K television was not going to be an ideal experience. However, I couldn’t even get that far, as just like in the previous round through memory lane, my NES failed to load any games. After a deep clean and another new pin connector I was back on track. This time around my goal was to experience games I had never played before, or those that I had only a glimpse of in their infancy. I decided to start with Crystalis.As feared, the combination of the NES on a modern TV was a mess. The colors were off. Any movement on screen was distorted. And I could see the preloaded artifacts on the right side of the screen, which was an area that would have been obscured on a CRT television. I knew this just wasn’t going to work. Thankfully, there are heroes in this world that have produced gems like the AVS, which plays original NES (and Famicom) carts and outputs to HD. I went ahead and ordered one, and felt back on track.I’ve since played a number of games, and not all to completion. I dabbled in games like The Battle of the Olympus, drawn to the Zelda II: The Adventure of Link style (or to be blunt, it’s a total rip-off). And played a few levels here and there with Batman: The Video Game, Commando, and The Legend of Kage. With so many games brought into my home all at once I had too much to choose from, a luxury that didn’t exist back in the 80s, which resulted in my fickleness. Thus far, at the time of writing this, the only two I have completed end-to-end are Crystalis and Metal Gear(both great). I do plan to play many more, and write about some of those in the future in greater detail.

Playing games as old as these, so many years later, after experiencing games evolve, and having those games be ones I had never played, resulted in a nostalgia-cocktail. It’s an experience that has been rather intoxicating. I often feel transported back in time, as if I just received ones of these games as a gift. Ignoring everything I have learned and experienced since then, however, is sometimes a challenge, and it’s not something that I feel one should even bother to block out. There is enjoyment to be found in comparing these games to those that followed, to feel the evolution and see what inspired the future. Granted, a hidden door in Metal Gear that is part of the critical path made me want to pull my hair out a little, and it was something I ended up looking up online, but this was the NES! Random, hidden doors was a sign of the time, and I can accept that.

Warning: Sweet Home spoilers ahead

Which brings me to Sweet Home. If you haven’t heard of Sweet Home then you are not alone, as it was only ever officially released in Japan. The version I am playing is a translated reproduction cartridge, meaning it isn’t an original NES game, but you wouldn’t know that by the looks of it. Sweet Home, produced by Capcom, is considered a precursor to the Resident Evil (Biohazard) series. Similar to Resident Evil, it’s a survival horror themed game that takes place in a creepy mansion filled with creatures and zombies. The mechanics draw similarities as well, as you progress by collecting items, backtracking, and using those items to progress in the form of light puzzles. Notes left behind offer clues to both your advancement and the grander story. Even the ability to toggle between characters is later found in Resident Evil Zero.

Where Sweet Home differs from the Resident Evil lineage the most is two-fold: 1) it’s an RPG, and 2) what makes this game so unique is how you partner with the five playable characters. With regards to the latter, the dynamic of grouping (and ungrouping) with your fellow trapped survivors is what makes the game unique and special. You are restricted to no more than three characters in a party at a time, and each character can only hold two items, in addition to their special item. This forces the player to make strategic decisions. Do I have a good set of items for what I anticipate ahead? If I need items from the group of two I left behind will they be able to safely catch up to the party of three? You’re constantly making trade-offs, and while on occasion it feels somewhat tedious, it mostly feels engaging.

And at times, safety in numbers can backfire. I find myself often toggling between holding a stance that the clues are too literal, and thus, too easy, and wishing the game was more challenging. And then, just minutes later, my entire party of three will fall into a pit, hanging for their lives, and because I wasn’t careful enough my remaining party of two isn’t able to get to them in time to save them. It’s actually moments like these that really up my appreciation for this game. It’s these types of creative surprises that adds flavor.

While I save often in this game, in fear of permanently losing a character, there was a moment that occurred early in the game where I decided to not reset and, instead, decided to accept and carry on. I had crossed a pit to obtain an essential item, by placing a log to form a bridge. My party of three doubled back after gathering the item, and this is when the character in the center of the line broke the bridge and hung to the edge. I was able to pull the character back up, but this meant that one of my other characters, Asuka, was now stranded on the other side. I ended up leaving Asuka on that lonely island for a huge portion of the game, always knowing, or at least hoping, that I would come back. It was a promise I made both to myself as a player as well as between the characters in the context of the game world. Eventually I found more logs, returned, and saved my friend. It was a sense of relief to finally be reunited. That was also when I realized that Asuka, all along, had a log in her inventory that she could have used to cross that gap. I laughed to myself.

The survival horror theme is bolstered even further by the ways in which characters become separated. If you’re like me, you occasionally take unnecessary risks in games (especially if you just saved your progress) in an effort to push the boundaries of the game. For example, there are spirits that will pull a character away from their group, plopping them in a room many screens away. The wisest decision in this moment would be to take the remaining two characters that are still bound together, and to have them navigate to their lost friend. However, like foolish teenagers in countless horror movies, I will often take my solo character and journey on, acting as if I am confined to the perspective of that person. Ask yourself, if you were taken from your friends by ghosts, would you sit still in a strange room? Probably not. Now, a solo trek like this can be disastrous, as you might break a flimsy plank that stretched across a pit, with no one to pull you up. Or you will face enemies alone, and with a finite number of healing items available in the game, this isn’t wise (assuming you even have an item to heal yourself with). This is actually where another ingenious mechanic comes into play: the ability to call for help. In this mode, another character (or set of characters) has limited time to run towards their comrade and assist them. It’s a heart-pounding moment.

Further on the topic of encounters, as mentioned before, this is an RPG, albeit a rather atypical one. Battles are randomly triggered, with the exception of the fights that ensue when you come into direct contact with enemies that traverse across some of the screens. The battles are rather simple, made up primarily of attacks and prayer (think magic). Many of the traditional systems found in RPGs, such as collecting coins, purchasing weapons and items, and resting at inns to regain health, do not exist in Sweet Home (nor do they have a place here). Rather, there is no currency, weapons and items are discovered, and hit points and prayer points are replenished only with tonics.

The environments powerfully convey the mood. In this vast mansion you twist and turn down hallways, up and down stairs leading you to great heights and depths, and explore the outer areas surrounding the property. Each section is truly unique, ranging from underground labyrinths to a lakeside forest. The top-down view is contrasted by more detailed scenes of paintings and monuments, and the occasional open door animation.

Most areas, in addition to having their own visual complexity, are accompanied by a variety of music compositions that fit snugly in the horror genre. A rolling low tone base line is accented by squealing highs. There is a deliberant tempo juxtaposition between the moderate beats-per-minute (BPM) of the exploration music and the upbeat, panic inducing songs that quickly loop and build anxiety when you battle enemies and suffer from poison.

Even with the limitations of the NES, Sweet Home managed to nail the theme of what survival horror should be. You’re scared. You’re often alone. Your resources are limited. Danger lurks behind every corner. The atmosphere is terrifying. A sinister backstory slowly reveals itself, making the world that much more frightening. Death is final.

Not only did Sweet Home bring me back to the joy of experiencing a new NES experience, it also reminded me of the pleasure of solving mysteries through the use of taking notes. Note taking, for many, in and outside the context of gaming, is considered a chore. Growing up in the days of the NES, however, it was not just helpful at times, but often essential. Drawing maps, scribbling down clues, recording passwords...these are all staples of the NES experience.

At this point, from what I can gather from the progression of the story, I’m close to the end. As for what comes next, I will dip into the backlog of titles I still have waiting for me, and keep playing, for as long as it still feels like home. And who knows, maybe in another 10 years I’ll dust off my NES games one more time for another go.

1. Mark while firing - If you are firing on an enemy, always simultaneously mark them, if not marked already. It's no extra work, and you not only get parts of marking, but you also get parts if a teammate kills the marked target, even if you are already down or dead at that point.2. Baiting downed allies - This doesn't make you a bad person...honestly. Sometimes baiting a downed teammate in order to down an approaching enemy is the best thing you can do for your team, especially when playing in Interrogation mode. Don't just go charging out in the open to help a teammate up, if it means you are going to get shot down in the process. 3. Run baiting - When you sprint, you appear on the enemy radar. This can be used to your advantage. Try sprinting in one direction, then pivot in a different direction and wait for an unsuspecting enemy to approach.4. Changing load outs mid-game - Try this out: start with a crafting load out, so that you can quickly craft items from the materials you pick up from lockboxes. Then, after your first death, switch to a more favorable load out. If you upgrade a weapon and then switch to a different load out that has that same weapon, don't worry, because you won't lose the weapon upgrade.5. Ideal place to die - With the exception of situations where you think you can be helped up or when you are hiding from a potential interrogation, crawl out into the open. That way, if an enemy wants to loot your leftovers, they have to do so without cover.6. Self terminate - When downed, it's often to your advantage to die quickly, with the exception of when you might be helped up or when playing in Survivor mode, so that you can respawn faster. If this is the case, and you see some enemy molotav fire or an enemy bomb, crawl on top of them. And by taking out that bomb, that's one less bomb for your team to worry about.7. Trigger enemy bombs while crawling - Similar to the previous point, try crawling over an enemy bomb when an enemy is nearby. That way, you can trigger the bomb and take out the enemy...along with yourself.8. Block vault objects while down - I know, I have a lot of tips related to crawling around. For this one, the idea is to crawl next to vaulted objects, such as low walls and windows, in order to prevent enemies from jumping over to your side. This can be handy for preventing an enemy from getting an interrogation, or just to throw them off and leave them exposed.

Here is the original list from 2015:

1. Craft a modified 2x4 as early as possible - When you pick up a 2x4 and die, you lose it, but if you upgrade it and die before using it, the upgraded melee weapon will cary over to your next life.

2. Save one-time use boosters for challenges - Unless you have stored up a hefty reserve of one-time use boosters, save them for challenges.

3. Save easier missions for later in the campaign - Challenges get harder the farther into the weeks you get, and while you can redo a previously used mission, the requirements go up if you do so.

4. Avoid the large headwear - Sure, you look great in that large cowboy hat, but you are also easier to spot.

5. Locate enemies while dead - When dead and waiting for your chance to respawn, press R1 to toggle through the various fixed cameras, and locate enemies.

6. Don't sprint next to crouching teammates - Avoid sprinting next to your stealthy teammates, because as you charge around you will make your location appear on the enemy radar, potentially giving up your teammates. However, the opposite can also be used as a way to bait enemies into an ambush or planted bomb (sprint to attract enemies into a trap).

7. Avoid putting yourself out in the open - It's tempting to execute an enemy from afar and then retrieve your loot, but make sure it's safe first. You can always collect the drops later in the round, so don't feel rushed. It's also tempting to run into a pile of unaware enemies while throwing haymakers, but if you have the ammo and don't have a melee weapon, it's probably better to just shoot them in the back.

8. Learn the maps - This is a pretty obvious tip, I know, but an important one. It takes time to learn not just the layout of each map, but the vantage points and cover as well.

9. Don't stray too far from the team - Sure, it's fun to be the lone wolf that sneaks up behind an enemy for a shiv kill, but more often than not riding solo is not a favorable team tactic. And, in the case of interrogation mode, it often leads to an easy interrogation for the enemy team. Instead, try working in a loose cluster formation, and ensure you have all vantage points covered (i.e. don't just have everyone staring ahead). But don't cluster too close, or else you will find the enemy taking the bulk of your team out with one molotov.

10. Revive teammates in safe areas - Often times you will do more harm than good when you rush out to revive a fallen ally, because in doing so the enemy will destroy you both. It's tempting to pop out from cover to help your comrades, especially when you see that big triangle icon staring at you, but think before you expose yourself. Sometimes letting your teammate crawl to your cover point makes the most sense for the situation, whereas other times letting the teammate die, as harsh as it may sound, is actually the tactical choice. And when your teammate is crawling for cover, actually let them make it behind the cover before you initiate the revive sequence, otherwise you may be blocking them and leaving them open to fire (with exception to a teammate that is a second from dying, in which case it's worth the risk of leaving them partially exposed).

11. Don't sit in one place for too long - Unless you are guarding your lock box, or are sniping and know your area is secure, it's probably not safe to stay crouching behind that rusty car for very long. Staying still for a long time makes you an easy target for enemy flankers.

The Walking Dead: Michonne, a three episode gaming experience, is the most recent The Walking Dead edition from Telltale Games. It follows a similar structure as the previous titles, yet falls short of emulating their success primarily due being limited in time, depth, and character development.

Pros

Story: The story, although rather short, is compelling and interesting.

Music: As with the previous TWD TellTale games, the music creates an engrossing feeling of despair that is so integral to the series. And it seems, with this iteration, Telltale corrected the awkward audio level mixing (music, voices, SFX) that was often not properly leveled before.

Intro: The intro is reminiscent of a high-quality TV show, and generates a truly episodic feel.

Michonne: A deeper, closer look at one of the most interesting characters from both the comic and the show.

Cons

Short: The game, in total, across all three episodes, is incredibly short. To be fair, Telltale Games warns us of this ahead of time, to properly set expectations. Warning or not, the limited experience restricts the story from properly breathing, meaning that characters and storylines don't receive the detail, and thus, emotional connection, they deserve.

Limited Choices: The game is lacking any real sense of impactful choice, unlike the versions before it.

Animation issues: Some animations are rough around the edges and could benefit from some polish time.

No skipping: The inability to skip the teaser for “scenes from next time”, the “previously seen” edit/montage, and the end credits that follow each episode is a big let down. Consider that many players will experience all three episodes back-to-back, as I did, resulting in the edit for “next time” unnecessarily appearing when you are about to play the next episode. Whereas, compound that with that fact that “previously” is redundant, considering you literally just completed the last episode.

SummaryAll in all,Michonne doesn't have the same gritty and dark feeling of previous iterations, which is mainly lacking due to the short experience that doesn't allow for true depth. The game really feels like it is about to take off right as it is ending.

Recently I wrote a post about my love/hate relationship with the game The Walking Dead: No Man's Land. As part of that post I offered a list of design ideas, and today I want to expand that list with some additional thoughts.

Since writing that last post a ton of work has gone into improving this game, which I applaud, and I hope the momentum can continue forward. I also hope some of my ideas are helpful to the developers (if they see this).

New ideas:

Mega-structures. As the game continues to grow and new building types are (hopefully) added, and as space in the town shrinks, one fun solution is to allow for combining of buildings. For example, you take 4 farms that are at least level X and combine them together to become one larger farm. This new farm would take up only 50% of the space of the previous 4 individual farms, but the output would be +25% (slightly higher output overall).

Guild gifting and trading. Recently, the ability to gift your entire guild a random treasure was added, which is a nice start, and ideally only the beginning of a gifting and trading foundation. The ability to gift and/or trade gear and characters to guild members would add a significant dynamic to the guild experience.

Council level building options are lacking. As the council levels up, new buildings can be added, at least, at first. At the higher levels, there are literally multiple level gaps where no new buildings can be added. This is a massive hole in what should be a rewarding experience.

Longer levels. At this time, I have yet to see a level that isn't longer than the equivalent of roughly 3 screens horizontally. Longer levels would up the feeling of exploration, which is a reoccurring trope in the Walking Dead universe.

Gathering 3 resources is repetitive. Most levels and challenges require the team to collect 3 resources. In the latest content, I have seen less of this, which is adding needed variety. For levels that are about collecting resources, why not change things up and have the characters scavenge for, say, 10 resources? Just something to add more diversity.

More achievements. Adding more achievements is an inexpensive development opportunity that adds high value (especially when you leverage stats you are already recording). For example, have additional achievements for killing a total of X walkers (multiple tiers higher than the current achievement that I acquired long ago), add an achievement for killing X saviors, and add achievements for upgrading gear and characters.

Character stats. The memorial shows the statistics of fallen soldiers, so then why not show statistics (elsewhere) for living characters? Clearly you are recording this data, if you are able to display it for the dead characters, so it just needs to be displayed.

Unequip. It's frustrating to have, for example, character Bob that levels up to be the best base-layer character and I cannot unequip gear from character Charlie, to provide to Bob. Currently, if I want to get that better gear from Charlie for Bob, I need to "sell" Charlie.

Survivor select UX needs an overhaul. When you select survivors to take into battle, the interface is cumbersome once you have acquired a large count of characters. There is no way to sort by character type, for example, and there is a lot of swiping needed to replace character by character. I recommend something more like a grid/matrix for the character view, possibly only after receiving more than X characters, or as a UI that can be toggled on and off. And/or a way to save favorite teams that can quickly be pulled in and out.

Hospital queue. Often I find some of my key characters being in the back of the hospital queue, waiting to be healed, behind in line weaker survivors. But what if the hospital gains the ability at X level to allow the player to sort the order of the queue?

Stunned opponents that are actually stunned. When raiding, I noticed that if I stun a defending character they still have the ability to counter-attack me. I think stun should mean you are truly stunned (and cannot counter). This feels more like a bug than a feature request.

More visual differences in building upgrades. The buildings have little variety in terms of visual differences when upgraded, often showing no visual change when leveled up multiple times in a row. It's a big let down moment to save up, upgrade a building, wait hours as it builds, and then see it looks exactly the same as before.

Ideas from previous post:

Balance the character types. Far too often do I find myself using the same character types over others, because of the unbalanced/overpowered nature of the design.

Add diversity to the special abilities. With the amount of grinding expected of your userbase, consider for a moment how utterly bored we may be of the repeated, simple abilities. Perhaps some characters within the same character type can have different abilities? Or maybe the player can select abilities? Or maybe as characters level up they gain secondary abilities? Or what about ability trees to unlock and grow? Or there could be a second or even third tier to every ability, so the player has to decide if they should spend the first tier with an attack or save up to the second or third tier? Why not some defensive abilities (e.g. smear walker blood on your body so that walkers ignore you for a turn or two)?

Grow the story mode faster. Again, this is where I see the most promise, at least, within the current feature set. It’s a shame that I always feel like I have to wait many days (or weeks) before I’m barely powerful enough to complete the next level.

Automated clearing of walls. What if, after, say, counsel level 12, the player can build up a sniper tower within their town, and the sniper will clear those 10 walkers off the walls automatically. It’s just plain tedious to click on those 10 walkers over and over again.

Build out guild features. How about trading or gifting unused gear to guild members? Or trading farm supplies with crates?

Fix the bad grammar and spelling errors. It’s just…unprofessional.

Redesign Challenge mode. I get it: you needed more content early on, and this was a quick solve, just like with the ability to replay the story mode in harder difficulties. But now, longtime players have hit high levels, and the mode just doesn’t make sense anymore. How about, for example, you start at a difficultly more inline with your current level? And/or have the levels be more dynamic, such as the loot crates being random. And for those enemies that spawn out of doors and gates, have that be more random too. I don’t even find myself thinking anymore as I cruise through these levels.

I love the idea of permadeath, I’ve just never had anyone actually permanently die. The Explore levels are simply not that threatening. I recommend that those levels become slightly more difficult, to raise the chance of death, and balance that out with better rewards.

Those pesky ads and promotions. I get it: you want to make money. But let’s consider for a moment all of the various ways that the players are inundated with ads and promotions: pop-ups when logging in, a limited time offer icon on the edge of the screen, a menu with various options for purchase, a theater with 30 second ads to watch for a prize, and an optional 30 second ad that unlocks more crates at the end of a level. Maybe tone it down a little?

Ability to unequip weapons and armor. Sometimes players like to swap gear. As it is now, you need to sell a character to free up the gear.

Ability to switch back to default uniform. I own one custom outfit, which happens to be female. I put it on one of my male characters, because, why not? But then I decided I wanted to switch it back to the default outfit. Not too surprisingly, this isn’t an option.

Add cosmetic decorations to purchase. Cosmetic items would be those things that don’t serve any function other than to decorate your camp. This could be things like a pile of walker corpses and wandering chickens.

Add solar panels. Solar panels would harvest the energy of the sun, making other building types, such as the hospital, more effective.

Add spiked cars. This would be a building type that you place outside the wall. The spiked car catches roamers milling about the wall while you are offline, with a finite limit which encourages you to log back in and collect the walkers that have been captured by the spikes.

Allow for building up (and breaking down) of the walls. A key element of the comic and show is fortifications, and the building and maintaining for those fortifications. But in this game, that element is ignored, as you start in a fully guarded camp from the beginning. What if you could build up walls to be stronger, and this strength tied into gameplay? What if walls occasionally broke down if not maintained? What would be the repercussions of an invaded town?

Include a mission where you wear walker suits. A reoccurring motif of the series is the wearing of walker guts and blood in order to blend in with the enemy. There could be a level where the characters kill some walkers, camouflage themselves in their innards, and then have to carefully traverse through a walker infested region.

I’m a huge fan of the Walking Dead comic and show, as well as the zombie genre as a whole. But this game…oh this game. A mixture of the now cliche Clash of Clans style freemium gameplay mixed with the tactical strategy games of old, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Landfeels like an ongoing experiment in bad game design, put forth for all to cringe at as the developers slowly massage it into something presentable. Yet beneath the layers of grinding and clicking is the framework for something special. Something that desperately wants to come to life. There is so much room for growth, however, in its current form, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land is a menagerie of lackluster, unbalanced, and lame design decisions, sprinkled with obnoxious pop-ups and ads.

The pie chart below shows how I find my time is typically spent in this game, with an explanation of each slice. At a high-level, you will notice a trend where I argue that the most interesting features are where you spend the least amount of time, and vice-versa, which is primarily a failure due to the lack of content and feature diversity.

Upgrading - Behind the safety of the town wall, players can build crops, storage areas, and stations for upgrading players and gear. While on the outside of the wall, with a recently added feature, players can now add and upgrade a walker pit. Supplies are spent to upgrade buildings, gear, and characters. Supplies which are obtained overtime and by scavaging. After the first couple of days of play I found that building and upgrading is an activity that is extremely infrequent, even after spending hours grinding to gather additional supplies.

Story Mode - The story mode is, by far, the most interesting aspect in the game, and unfortunately it’s what players will find they will spend only a tiny fraction of time participating in. What gets so utterly frustrating about the story mode is how infrequent it can be played, because the difficulty curve is an insanely steep arch. Rather than including more levels that can be played more frequently, the developers opted for a drought of content that is stretched so thin that it cannot even be enjoyed.

Raiding Outposts - Every time there is an update I get excited again, hoping for some fun, new features. And occasionally there are new features that, unfortunately, always feel flat, like a quarter of an idea, birthed from the womb far too early. Outpost raiding is one of those recent additions, where players build their own defensive outpost and raid the outposts of others in search for yet another type of resource. Raiding feels far too formulaic, not only in the limited environments, but in terms of strategy as well: kill the walkers, which charges your special skills, then unleash a flurry of your skills on the human enemies.

Grinding

Log in, click on the 10 zombies outside your gate for pitiful resources, then click on your tents and farms for accumulated supplies. Rinse and repeat.

I’m lumping the Challenge mode into the grinding section, because that’s exactly what the Challenges always feel like: a grind. It’s an incredibly boring mode of play that yields weak individual and team-based rewards, cycling through a small set of reusable levels. Challenge mode always starts you off on the weakest version of each level, no matter how powerful your characters are, forcing the player to grind, grind, and grind some more through familiar levels. And since the prizes match the difficulty, you will be rewarded with low-level junk over and over again. There are rewards that the entire guild works towards, but those rewards are not worth the time spent, and further, the challenge creates a system whereas if a player within the guild has not participated then they reap the benefits regardless, creating angry guild leaders. Like most of this game, it is designed in a way that creates a lengthy experience with reused content and minimal enjoyment.

Replaying previous Story levels on harder difficulties. The levels are exactly the same, just harder. This is one of the oldest design tactics for extending gameplay as cheaply as possible.

Similar to replaying previous levels you can also Explore previous areas in order to get more resources and gear. Again, like the Challenge mode, these are reused levels with the exact same layout time and time again.

In short: great framework, terrible design, obnoxious ads, and an extreme lack of unique content.

Next, I want to offer up some suggestions, that I feel could greatly improve this game:

Balance the character types. Far too often do I find myself using the same character types over others, because of the unbalanced/overpowered nature of the design.

Add diversity to the special abilities. With the amount of grinding expected of your userbase, consider for a moment how utterly bored we may be of the repeated, simple abilities. Perhaps some characters within the same character type can have different abilities? Or maybe the player can select abilities? Or maybe as characters level up they gain secondary abilities? Or what about ability trees to unlock and grow? Or there could be a second or even third tier to every ability, so the player has to decide if they should spend the first tier with an attack or save up to the second or third tier? Why not some defensive abilities (e.g. smear walker blood on your body so that walkers ignore you for a turn or two)?

Grow the story mode faster. Again, this is where I see the most promise, at least, within the current feature set. It’s a shame that I always feel like I have to wait many days (or weeks) before I’m barely powerful enough to complete the next level.

Automated clearing of walls. What if, after, say, counsel level 12, the player can build up a sniper tower within their town, and the sniper will clear those 10 walkers off the walls automatically. It’s just plain tedious to click on those 10 walkers over and over again.

Build out guild features. How about trading or gifting unused gear to guild members? Or trading farm supplies with crates?

Fix the bad grammar and spelling errors. It’s just…unprofessional.

Redesign Challenge mode. I get it: you needed more content early on, and this was a quick solve, just like with the ability to replay the story mode in harder difficulties. But now, longtime players have hit high levels, and the mode just doesn’t make sense anymore. How about, for example, you start at a difficultly more inline with your current level? And/or have the levels be more dynamic, such as the loot crates being random. And for those enemies that spawn out of doors and gates, have that be more random too. I don’t even find myself thinking anymore as I cruise through these levels.

I love the idea of permadeath, I’ve just never had anyone actually permanently die. The Explore levels are simply not that threatening. I recommend that those levels become slightly more difficult, to raise the chance of death, and balance that out with better rewards.

Those pesky ads and promotions. I get it: you want to make money. But let’s consider for a moment all of the various ways that the players are inundated with ads and promotions: pop-ups when logging in, a limited time offer icon on the edge of the screen, a menu with various options for purchase, a theater with 30 second ads to watch for a prize, and an optional 30 second ad that unlocks more crates at the end of a level. Maybe tone it down a little?

Ability to unequip weapons and armor. Sometimes players like to swap gear. As it is now, you need to sell a character to free up the gear.

Ability to switch back to default uniform. I own one custom outfit, which happens to be female. I put it on one of my male characters, because, why not? But then I decided I wanted to switch it back to the default outfit. Not too surprisingly, this isn’t an option.

Add cosmetic decorations to purchase. Cosmetic items would be those things that don’t serve any function other than to decorate your camp. This could be things like a pile of walker corpses and wandering chickens.

Add solar panels. Solar panels would harvest the energy of the sun, making other building types, such as the hospital, more effective.

Add spiked cars. This would be a building type that you place outside the wall. The spiked car catches roamers milling about the wall while you are offline, with a finite limit which encourages you to log back in and collect the walkers that have been captured by the spikes.

Allow for building up (and breaking down) of the walls. A key element of the comic and show is fortifications, and the building and maintaining for those fortifications. But in this game, that element is ignored, as you start in a fully guarded camp from the beginning. What if you could build up walls to be stronger, and this strength tied into gameplay? What if walls occasionally broke down if not maintained? What would be the repercussions of an invaded town?

Include a mission where you wear walker suits. A reoccurring motif of the series is the wearing of walker guts and blood in order to blend in with the enemy. There could be a level where the characters kill some walkers, camouflage themselves in their innards, and then have to carefully traverse through a walker infested region.

​I’m at that point again where I’m ready to, once again, uninstall. I’ll check back in again, one more time, and hope the positive elements of this game have been amplified, and the negatives have been sorted out.

You've checked out Factions MP in The Last of Us, seen all the maps, and have tried out all three modes of play. You've also read all of the loading screen tips, and learned a few things from them. Perhaps you've also toyed around with different load outs and purchased a few upgrades. But what are some additional tactics you could be employing to your advantage? What mistakes are leading to your constant, frustrating death? Check out my tips below, and hopefully they help you out (in no particular order).

Craft a modified 2x4 as early as possible - When you pick up a 2x4 and die, you lose it, but if you upgrade it and die before using it, the upgraded melee weapon will cary over to your next life.

Save one-time use boosters for challenges - Unless you have stored up a hefty reserve of one-time use boosters, save them for challenges.

Save easier missions for later in the campaign - Challenges get harder the farther into the weeks you get, and while you can redo a previously used mission, the requirements go up if you do so.

Avoid the large headwear - Sure, you look great in that large cowboy hat, but you are also easier to spot.

Locate enemies while dead - When dead and waiting for your chance to respawn, press R1 to toggle through the various fixed cameras, and locate enemies.

Don't sprint next to crouching teammates - Avoid sprinting next to your stealthy teammates, because as you charge around you will make your location appear on the enemy radar, potentially giving up your teammates. However, the opposite can also be used as a way to bait enemies into an ambush or planted bomb (sprint to attract enemies into a trap).

Avoid putting yourself out in the open - It's tempting to execute an enemy from afar and then retrieve your loot, but make sure it's safe first. You can always collect the drops later in the round, so don't feel rushed. It's also tempting to run into a pile of unaware enemies while throwing haymakers, but if you have the ammo and don't have a melee weapon, it's probably better to just shoot them in the back.

Learn the maps - This is a pretty obvious tip, I know, but an important one. It takes time to learn not just the layout of each map, but the vantage points and cover as well.

Don't stray too far from the team - Sure, it's fun to be the lone wolf that sneaks up behind an enemy for a shiv kill, but more often than not riding solo is not a favorable team tactic. And, in the case of interrogation mode, it often leads to an easy interrogation for the enemy team. Instead, try working in a loose cluster formation, and ensure you have all vantage points covered (i.e. don't just have everyone staring ahead). But don't cluster too close, or else you will find the enemy taking the bulk of your team out with one molotov.

Revive teammates in safe areas - Often times you will do more harm than good when you rush out to revive a fallen ally, because in doing so the enemy will destroy you both. It's tempting to pop out from cover to help your comrades, especially when you see that big triangle icon staring at you, but think before you expose yourself. Sometimes letting your teammate crawl to your cover point makes the most sense for the situation, whereas other times letting the teammate die, as harsh as it may sound, is actually the tactical choice. And when your teammate is crawling for cover, actually let them make it behind the cover before you initiate the revive sequence, otherwise you may be blocking them and leaving them open to fire (with exception to a teammate that is a second from dying, in which case it's worth the risk of leaving them partially exposed).

Don't sit in one place for too long - Unless you are guarding your lock box, or are sniping and know your area is secure, it's probably not safe to stay crouching behind that rusty car for very long. Staying still for a long time makes you an easy target for enemy flankers.

Bonus tactic: This one may work well for some, and horrible for others, so give it a try and see what you think.

Play in Counter-Strike mode - Typically, players select both a small firearm (e.g. pistol) and a large firearm (e.g. rifle). But instead, try only selecting a pistol, saving your load out points for more survival skills and a premium purchasable weapon. Use a one-use booster such as the small firearm upgrade. Then, in game, craft for parts and rack up a couple of pistol kills in order to quickly buy your purchasable weapon, and make every shot count.

Factions MP is the multiplayer mode in The Last of Us, and like its single player counterpart, you’ll find yourself shooting, sneaking, crafting, hiding, fleeing, and vaulting over rubble like a dystopian gymnast. There are 3 team modes to play: supply raid (players respawn in real time when killed until your team runs out of reserves), survivors (round based combat), and interrogation (gain intelligence from enemies and then crack open their safe). Players select a mode, a load out (weapons and abilities), and an optional one-use booster that they may have earned during previous sessions (e.g. cheaper purchasable ammo or a starting upgrade to their primary gun). And no, you won’t find any zombies in any of these modes (I’ll comment more on that later in the article).

7 Reasons Why You Should Play

Let’s start by talking about some of the aspects that make Factions MP so great (and in no particular order).

﻿That feeling you get when you shank an enemy﻿Nothing beats the satisfaction of creeping up behind an oblivious enemy that you have been tracking across the map, grabbing hold of them, and driving a shiv into their neck. It’s the ultimate insult.

Challenges add a layer of complexity Every so often a challenge is presented to the player, which are divided into negative and positive outcomes that impact your camp, such as a hunter attack that you try to negate or new survivors that are looking to join you. The player has to decide how they want to complete the challenge, selecting from a list of options (e.g. X downs with Y weapon, heal X teammates, or perform X special executions).

The game modes keep things diverse The 3 modes of play allow for a diverse set of gameplay. Perhaps you are in the mood for an all-out brawl with quick respawns. Then supply raid is your mode. Or maybe you are in the mood for a slow and strategic team based game with friends, in which case survivors is your mode. Endless load out combinations Load outs are essentially templates that you draft by combining weapons and abilities. You have a finite amount of load out points, which are used to arrange your gear, and customization is entirely up to you (with the exception of weapons and abilities that cost real cash, if you don’t want to spend the money that is). For example, you may prefer a stealthy approach that you can attain from a bow, covert training, and a silenced pistol (the bow and silenced weapons don’t show up on the enemy radar when fired). Others may go for a support role, opting for the ability to heal teammates and spot enemies from afar. Your load out will indirectly affect how you use the parts you collect in battle (essentially currency) to purchase upgrades to your weapons, armor, and purchasable weapons. For example, some players save parts for a purchasable weapon, while others use their load out points on abilities, skipping a purchasable, and instead use their parts for weapon upgrades.I’ve tried a lot of load outs, and at the time of writing this, this is my favorite: revolver, silenced tactical shotgun, agility 2, and covert training 2. I find that having a silenced primary is essential to your survival, as it allows you to get the necessary shots off to get a kill without giving out your location. The revolver is a solid compliment to the shotgun since it has the long-range versatility that the shotgun lacks. Agility level 2 means silent movement as well as the ability to walk, climb, and crawl very quickly, and the speed it provides cannot be overlooked in a game like this. Covert training level 2 pairs quite well with agility 2, as it allows you to crouch walk without appearing in the enemies listen mode. As a bonus, it starts you with a shiv at each spawn.

The needs of your camp take you out of your comfort zone Every player has their own camp of survivors, and as you play your camp will grow in size, thus needing more supplies to stay well fed and free of sicknesses. One way to gain supplies is to down or execute enemies, and then collect the loot they drop. But sometimes raiding their body isn’t that easy, because the battles can be hectic, so you can’t just always go rushing over to your fallen target out in the open. Thankfully, your radar marks the locations of supply drops, so you can strategically return to them before the game ends, and collect them safely. As a tip, when you have sick and hungry survivors, use a boost that you collected from completed challenges in order to give you a tactical edge in your next supply run. Avoid the urge to waste boosts when they aren’t needed, unless you have a hefty surplus.

Players automatically communicate This is a bit of a minor detail, but it’s a prime example of one of the many elements that adds depth to the game. The character voices not only contributes a layer of ambience, but also serves a necessary role in communicating out essential information. If a teammate is shot down and needs help getting back up, he will shout out “I’m down!”. If you dig into your backpack to craft something, your player will ask those nearby to watch his back. Out of ammo? They’ll yell about that too. And from all this, you’ll discover that these situational phrases allow for interesting team-based gameplay without the need for everyone to be chatting over a microphone.

Properly balanced maps Every multiplayer map is well thought out and fine-tuned for a solid balance. The arrangement of cover and the map sizes keep the action moving quickly without being too chaotic, whereas the placement of supply boxes often force the player to take the risk of exposing themselves (and that’s a good thing for balance and gameplay). Health kits are a bit too easy to come by, especially considering you can also craft them, but that doesn’t disturb the flow of the game. Best of all, there aren’t any overpowered camping spots, and due to the nature of load out points, you see a strong diversity of weapons being selected.

Gameplay Annoyances

No game is prefect, and the issues I’m listing out are pretty minor as far as multiplayer games go.

Unintentional targeting Every so often I find that I am inadvertently targeting the wrong enemy, which leads to my demise. Here are a couple of examples:

An enemy is standing with his back to me, primed for a shiv attack. Next to him is a downed enemy, waiting for his assistance. I run at the standing foe, and click triangle to execute the shiv attack. But instead my character initiates a special execution against the downed opponent, because it is the same button to trigger this type of attack. This leaves me vulnerable to the standing enemy, who easily kills me.

Again, another standing versus downed enemy scenario. A standing enemy is healing a down enemy, attempting to get him back on his feet. I rush in and swing my melee weapon, aiming for the standing opponent, but hit the downed opponent. Once again, the standing enemy kills me, as I am unable to fight the two in the priority order I had desired.

Rough bullet collision Occasionally, I will be firing through the window of a dilapidated car or between the railings of a stairway, and by bullets will fail to penetrate through them. In a game where every shot counts, a missed opportunity like this will often turn the table for the enemy.

Wish list

Everyone’s a critic, I know. And there’s only so much time, resources, and budget to work on a game. But whatever, we can dream, and this is what I wish Factions MP could add in:

More maps - What better way to preserve the longevity of a multiplayer game than adding in more arenas? There have been multiple rollouts of maps over the years, so there’s always hope that there will be more.

Zombies – For a single player game to have so many zombies it is disappointing that there isn’t one multiplayer mode with some of the fungus-infected creepers. What if you took supply raid and made it so that every now and then a zombie meandered into the map, diverting the attention of the players? What if there was a new mode where players joined forces as a large team to survive against an onslaught of wave after wave of the undead (yes, like Left-4-Dead 2)?

Summary

All in all, Factions MP is a solid multiplayer experience with enough diversity in weapons, modes, challenges, customization, and tactics to keep each game fresh and fun.